Sangakkara all praise for Pakistan

Colombo: After losing their World Cup match to Pakistan on Saturday, Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara was all praise for Pakistan, saying that they proved themselves as a proud side in the ongoing sporting event.

Sangakkara said that Pakistan were a tough side as they put behind the spot-fixing scandal.

“It was a battle of nerves that Sri Lanka lost,” he mentioned.

Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka by 11 runs in the nail-biting Group A encounter. "They are a tough side. They proved that they have pride in themselves and I thought they played fantastic cricket," Sangakkara said.

Sri Lanka have never beaten Pakistan in the World Cup but had a chance of ending that losing streak while chasing 277.Sangakkara said his team just didn't make use of the opportunities that came its way.

"We tried to change that (the jinx) on Saturday. I am not too sure why that has happened over the years, but there were some critical moments in this game and we couldn't turn those critical moments in our favour," Sangakkara added.

Sangakkara said the top order of the team did not make enough contribution.

"We did pretty well to restrict them to 277 and the start we got was good enough to keep on batting, but when you lose four wickets in the same amount of overs and you are less than 100 for four wickets down, it makes it a bit difficult," Sangakkara said.

Afridi, who picked up five wickets against Canada in Pakistan's opening game, was named Man-of-the-Match for his four for 34.